


To Hell And Back

by heraisabiter



Category: Star Wars, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Angst, Badass Finn, Canon Compliant, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Jedi, Jedi Rey, Multi, Not porn, OT3, Past Brainwashing, Pining, Pining Poe, Plot, Protective Finn, Romance, Starfighter combat, Stormtrooper Finn, Sweet, guerilla combat, jedistormpilot, minor hurt/comfort, the damerons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-31
Updated: 2016-01-16
Packaged: 2018-05-10 15:34:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5591638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heraisabiter/pseuds/heraisabiter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rey, Finn, and Poe Dameron are sent on a mission together. After their ship crashes, Finn falls back on his stormtrooper training to keep his friends safe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Descent

"You're getting good with that lightsaber."

"Thanks," Rey replied, batting another stinger beam back at the training remote that hovered two meters from her. The needle-fine blue beam hit the sphere and it crashed onto the hanger floor, defeated. "I wish Master Skywalker saw it, too."

"He doesn't think you're good?" Finn's brow furrowed. The idea of someone not appreciating Rey's skill was absolutely alien to him. They were alone in a vacant hangar where Rey had been given permission to practice with the lightsaber. Finn watched from a perch atop a crate.

Rey smothered a scowl. "He's too busy to notice," she replied. "General Organa has had him in meetings since we landed." She stooped to pick up the deactivated remote. "I don't get more than twenty minutes with him every day, and we spend that meditating."

"I'm sure meditation is important," Finn offered half-heartedly. "Besides, Master Skywalker has been in exile for years, and he's not a young man. Perhaps he's allowed his lightsaber to rust, and that's why he has you train with remotes."

Rey blotted the sweat from her neck and arched an eyebrow at her friend. "I wouldn't say that where Master Skywalker could hear you. Or haven't you heard the stories about old General Kenobi dismembering adversaries and dueling Darth Vader?"

"Sorry." Finn ducked his head. "It's just...there are no old stormtroopers. General Organa, Master Skywalker, they're much more mature than the warriors I'm used to."

"That's because we're the ones who were tricky enough to survive." The General's voice echoed slightly in the hanger, making Finn start guiltily.

Rey smothered a smile and bowed slightly to General Organa. "That was going to be my argument, ma'am."

General Organa patted Rey's shoulder in a maternal kind of way. "I'm glad I found you two. I have a job for you."

"What can we do for you, ma'am?" Rey asked, eagerness in her voice. Finn still hadn't recovered his ability to speak.

"Master Skywalker is going to begin gathering students."

Rey's eyes lit up. "He's reopening the academy?"

General Organa nodded. "That's the idea. He needs a training base. I'm sending the two of you on a scout mission to evaluate potential sites."

Rey chewed her lip a moment before answering. "I appreciate the work, General. I don't know anything about the logistics of setting up a school, though. Are you sure you want me to go?"

"Luke says you need to go." The general's brown eyes, so much like Rey's own, bored into her. "You're strong with the Force. It will guide you to the right location. We're sending some Resistance personnel with you to help you with the logistics." Leia looked at Finn. "Are you prepared for that, trooper?"

Finn nodded. "Yes, ma'am," he replied, swallowing the bile that rose in his throat at being called "trooper" again. Even if it was technically accurate for an infantryman in the Resistance.

The general nodded and offered him a smile. "Good man. Chewbacca is working on fixing the hyperdrive on the _Falcon_ , so a pilot and shuttle have been assigned for this mission, as well. You'll be leaving from Pad Delta in two hours."

\-----

When General Organa offered him a mission, Poe Dameron had jumped at the chance to get away from the base for a little while. He had a lot on his mind, and he needed to be away from certain people to think things through.

She thanked him, handed him the briefing packet, and walked away. She didn't see the blood drain from his face when he read the mission parameters.

Poe had considered reporting to the infirmary as sick, but the med droids were merciless in searching for illnesses if one wasn't apparent to appease their diagnostic circuits. He asked BB-8 to roll over his foot, but she had refused to provide him with an injury - rather rudely - and rolled away muttering about patching leaks before they blow a cooling system or something to that effect.

He was given no choice but to bite the blaster bolt. He went to Pad Delta and started running preflight checks on the _Gin Winnie_.

"Poe!" Finn's face almost glowed with happiness seeing the pilot, and Poe's heart sped up a little when the younger man hugged him enthusiastically.

The pilot's chest tightened when Rey stepped in for a hug of her own. She was much more reserved than Finn, but her smile was so bright it could have lit the darkest parts of space. "I'm glad you're coming. I was beginning to think you were avoiding us."

Poe coughed. "Well, the _Winnie_ 's all ready to go, if you are."

Finn grinned and climbed the ramp into the freighter. Rey paused to give Poe a puzzled look, but then followed Finn aboard.

Poe took a deep breath, trying to steady himself. It didn't work, but he followed them up the ramp anyway.

\-----

The trip to the jungle world of Madara was going to be sixteen hours in the _Winnie_. Rey asked to handle takeoff, and Poe agreed after a moment's hesitation. He busied himself with the navicomputer, but noticed that the flight was as smooth as if he had been at the helm himself. The girl was an incredible pilot.

"First jump will be about three hours," Poe read from the nav computer's screen as the elongated stars merged into the mottled brightness of hyperspace. "Then we make a course correction in the R-27536 system for the long jump." He looked up and saw Rey looking at him with her kind brown eyes and swallowed hard. _Too young for you, Dameron_ , he sternly reminded himself.

Poe jumped when Finn's big hand clasped his shoulder. "This should be a good trip," he said with a grin, his white teeth standing out against his dark skin. Finn had strapped himself into one of the jump seats in the cockpit instead of the more comfortable acceleration couch in the lounge area for takeoff.

Suddenly, Poe needed to get out of the cockpit. "I'm going to fix dinner." He tried to push out of the chair, unstrapped the webbing, successfully pushed out of the chair, and headed for the galley.

He missed the puzzled looks Rey and Finn exchanged as he left.

\-----

Rey ate the last of the grain salad Poe had prepared for their dinner. It had been her second helping. She wished she could tell Poe how delicious it was, but he had disappeared to his rack after hastily eating a small portion.

"I think he is avoiding us," Finn asked, picking at the last of his own food.

"It certainly seems that way." Rey took her dish to the minuscule galley and put it in the cleaner. She leaned against the bulkhead. "You were close with him after you woke up. Maybe he's upset that you're spending time with me now."

Finn started to shake his head. "I've invited him to eat and offered to help him with his work over and over. I'm only spending all my time with you because he's busy." His eyes widened as he realized what he'd said. "I mean...not that you're not great company..."

Rey laughed lightly and waved for him to stop. "I understand." She sighed. "I was looking forward to getting to know him better after I got back from retrieving Master Skywalker."

Finn gave her a warm smile and squeezed her small, work-hardened hand. "He's a good friend to have." He leaned in and lightly kissed her cheek. "We have a few days with him. He'll come around."

Rey smiled back at him and squeezed his hand. She was still getting used to affectionate touches. General Organa had held her like the mother she never knew as they shared their grief over the loss of Han Solo. She and Poe had shared a celebratory embrace when they completed the map to Skywalker. Later, when she had been preparing to leave, Poe gave her another hug and promised to take care of Finn while she was gone.

"I'm glad he was there for you when I was looking for Master Skywalker. I hated having to leave before you woke up."

Finn squeezed her hand briefly before releasing it. "Me, too. I miss him."

\-----

The solitude of the cockpit was soothing for Rey as the sleek shuttle hurtled through hyperspace. Finn had offered to sit up with her on her watch, but she insisted that he sleep before the middle watch. Rey was glad she had friends now, a place to belong, but sometimes it was a relief to have time alone.

She had spent most of her shift crawling over every inch of the ship. It was old enough to not draw attention, but many of the systems were top-of-the-line retrofits. She was reminded of the _Falcon_ , and thought wistfully of the ship. Chewie had thrown his lot back in with the Resistance in order to stay close to her, and claimed he was doing the eternally needed repairs on the _Falcon_ \- though Rey suspected he was making some modifications Han had never let him do.

The first jump ended in a system belonging to a nameless red star orbited by a handful of lifeless planets. The scanners showed no sign of any other vessels in the vicinity as she maneuvered the _Winnie_ toward the vector for the second leg of their journey.

"Any problems?" Poe asked as he ducked into the cockpit.

Rey glanced over at the older pilot as he settled into the seat beside her. "Not so far. Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

Poe shrugged as he looked over the sensor data. "Paranoia born of being a member of the Resistance for most of my life. Interdictor cruisers are rare enough that hyperspace is pretty much safe, but course correction points are vulnerabilities. I can never sleep through them."

Rey got the feeling there was something he wasn't telling her, but didn't press the issue. "All quiet in System R-27536." She looked at the distant specks of the planets, cold and inhospitable. "We're the only beings for parsecs."

Poe nodded, and the nav system beeped to confirm that they were on the correct vector for the next hyperspace jump. He settled into the chair, resisting the urge to take the controls as the young woman competently steered the shuttle and launched them back into hyperspace.

She was a remarkable creature. An amazing pilot, if even half of Chewbacca's bragging around the hangar was true, and a Jedi in training. It would have been easy for all she had dealt with growing up as a scavenger on Jakku to make her bitter and dark, but it had instead imbued her with a quiet strength and a determination that burned so bright that it almost hurt Poe to look at her.

 _Too young for you, Dameron,_ he reminded himself firmly. It was quickly becoming a mantra for him. _Besides, Finn is crazy about her._ Poe wouldn't do that to the man who had rescued him from the First Order and kept BB8 out of their hands. More confusing feelings swirled up at the thought of the ex-trooper who had saved his life, and Poe shook his head to clear it before pushing out of the seat. He gave Rey a sleepy smile. "I'm going back to bed. Holler if you need me."

He avoided her big brown eyes on his way out of the cockpit.

\-----

Finn relieved Rey while they were well underway the second leg of the trip. Even though he wasn't a pilot, it was generally a good idea to have someone awake just in case. Poe would be taking over before any other piloting should be required.

The hum of the hyperdrive was familiar to him and strange at the same time. The pitch was a different from the low thrum of Imperial Star Destroyer engines, but the constant engine noise and the standard gravity was a strong reminder of his life as a stormtrooper.

The solitude was different, though. There was no privacy in the life of a stormtrooper. FN-2187 had only been alone before on certain duties and during survival training. His bunk had been one of twelve in a bay, shared between three shifts of troopers. All the facilities were communal. The meals in the mess were bland and uniform. Everything was designed to discourage a trooper from developing an identity.

And now? Since he had woken up, he had been figuring out who Finn was. Poe had helped, introducing him to foods and entertainments and pastimes, and Rey had been a good sounding board, but mostly it involved a lot of introspection.

Joining the Resistance had been an easy choice - the only things he knew were fighting and waste disposal systems. They could also offer him a degree of protection. The First Order had already levied a bounty on his head. General Organa had said that the bounty was higher if he was captured alive than turned in dead.

The general gave him a holdout blaster with a small, easily concealed holster when she showed him the Holonet posting of the bounty. It was a tiny weapon, with a capacity of only a handful of shots and limited range, but it was a weapon of last resort. Her eyes had spoken volumes as he took it.

He spent his watch dismantling and cleaning his Resistance-issue blaster rifle, personal pistol, and the tiny holdout. Weapons must be kept in good condition to meet the demands of the First Order.

 _Stop that_ , Finn admonished himself. _The First Order is behind you._ He had thought leaving the First Order would be easy, but he was still using the training they had given him, and it had been so deeply entwined with the brainwashing that it was hard to separate the mechanical actions from the old feelings of loyalty and obedience.

"Hey, Finn," Poe said in a rough, sleepy voice as he entered the lounge and headed for the galley. "Did I miss anything?" The scent of caf wafted into the lounge.

"Nothing to report, sir." Finn responded mechanically, then frowned. "I mean...no." He focused on replacing the last parts of the holdout blaster. He had just finished fixing the last piece in place when Poe's hand landed on his shoulder.

Poe smiled down at him. "Don't worry about it, buddy. Get some sleep, huh?" There was a warmth in his hazel eyes, and Finn felt a rush of something as he nodded and smiled back. Then the pilot continued into the cockpit, leaving Finn staring at the minuscule blaster in his hand and contemplating his new life.

\-----

The _Gin Winnie_ dropped out of hyperspace on the edge of the Qumlot system. Poe checked the navicomputer and expertly steered the transport toward their next hyperspace vector.

Poe was no stranger to interstellar trips. The mottled white of hyperspace was as familiar as the ceiling in his quarters at the base. More familiar - he had been seeing hyperspace longer, and he saw it more frequently.

Poe would never admit it, but hyperspace made him philosophical. Long jumps in the cockpit of an X-wing had taught him to burn the time with mental pursuits - there was no room to move in a fighter cockpit. Though he was now free to roam around the ship, he sat there, staring into the swirling, mottled white and blue, considering. Their destination was just a few hours away. Rey and Finn would be waking up soon to plunge Poe back into his personal hell of confused emotions.

Poe had left a trail of lovers through his life. He wasn't particularly picky when it came to their physical aspects - he had loved both males and females of various species. It was more about the intimacy than anything else. He'd had good relationships and bad, but he had never really committed to any of them, and when it had been time to move on it was usually amicable. They always knew the score. That was just the way it was for a fighter pilot. It wasn't a career that had a high retirement rate, and he didn't want to give anyone a false sense of the future.

But Finn... He was so good. A lifetime of conditioning hadn't been able to destroy the will to do what was right instead of what he was told. He had saved Poe's life by getting him off that Star Destroyer. He had completed Poe's mission when he had thought Poe was dead. And he had fought back against the First Order and worked to destroy their superweapon.

Finn always thought of those around him first. When he had woken up, his first question had been whether Rey was alright. The second was whether Starkiller had been destroyed and the Resistance was safe. It wasn't until his third question that he asked about his own condition. He was so selfless. It was astonishing that kind of goodness had survived the First Order's conditioning.

The feelings that Finn inspired plunged deeper than the shallow relationships Poe had satisfied himself with for most of his career.

And then there was Rey. Beautiful, intense, magnetic, young Rey. She was everything Poe would expect from a Jedi-in-training. Her dark eyes seemed to look not at him, but into him. Her stoic demeanor masked one of the finest mechanical minds he had ever encountered. Her strength and determination burned so hot Poe felt that touching her would burn. She made Poe feel old sometimes, but other times she made him forget the years that were between them. She had experienced more than any nineteen-year-old should have in some areas, but she was woefully or charmingly inexperienced in others.

Rey could take care of herself. She had provided for herself, protected herself, for as long as she could remember. She had fought for every scrap she had as a scavenger on Jakku. Even though she was so young, she hadn't been a child for a very long time. She had been through so much, but experienced so little of the things that made life good, like family and love. Finn was much the same.

Poe thought of his own parents. His mother, the heroic rebel pilot who had settled down with her husband to be a farmer and raise a family. She had started teaching her son how to fly as soon as he could reach the stick in the A-wing. After she died, Poe could still feel her there when he flew. He had gotten close to his father, the Pathfinder sergeant-turned-farmer, after that tragedy. Even with the Resistance keeping him busy, Poe usually found time to send a message home about once a week.

For a brief moment, Poe indulged in a fantasy of taking those two who had become so important to him back to Yavin 4 on his next leave. He imagined Rey and his father under the hood of one of the old mechs together, tinkering. He saw Finn picking fruit from the tree, seeing unprocessed food and where it came from for the first time. He thought about sitting around the table with them, his father telling stories to make Poe blush and Rey and Finn laugh.

The navicomputer beeped and the mottled light of hyperspace clarified and resolved into a star field and the revolving green, blue, and white planet of Madara. Poe shook himself from his reverie and maneuvered the shuttle into orbit as he scanned for the site that they were supposed to be surveying for the Resistance.

Poe jumped as he suddenly realized he wasn't alone. "Rey! Sithspit, make some noise, will you?"

The Jedi-in-training stared out of the viewport like she was in a trance. Her voice came out dreamy, like she wasn't quite aware of Poe staring at her. "There's something wrong." She seemed to snap back to herself and scrambled for the shield controls, activating the defenses before taking the copilot's seat. The _Gin Winnie_ jerked and the sensor panel lit up. "Two TIE-types, bearing one-four-seven, coming in hot! Jamming comms now," she announced, flipping switches and activating the intercom. "Finn, we've got trouble!"

Finn swayed and stumbled into the cockpit as lasers hammered the shields and the deck bucked under his feet. "What's happening?"

The _Gin Winnie_ wasn't a particularly nimble craft, but Poe pushed it into evasive maneuvers that strained the ship's capabilities and kept it intact through the barrage of enemy fire. "Finn, buddy, get on the gun and pick those TIEs off our tail! Rey, plot us a course away from here!"

Finn retreated quickly to the gun station and Rey's fingers flew across the controls as Poe punched the stick forward and chopped the throttle back, sending them into a relative dive before wrestling the freighter into a roll that wasn't as fast as he would have liked. One more shot rocked them and warning lights flared. At last Finn started returning fire and the TIEs' shots became wider.

Rey swore softly. "Head for the planet."

Poe risked a glance at his copilot as she struggled out of the webbing. "What? What did we lose?"

"That last shot fried something in the hyperdrive. Try not to bounce me around too much while I see if it's reparable."

Poe reluctantly headed into the atmosphere as she headed aft. He always felt better while flying, but she was right - the little freighter wasn't going to take much more punishment, and they had a better chance of surviving and making repairs dirt-side.

Now that there was drag, the TIEs weren't as fast or maneuverable, and the _Gin Winnie_ 's aerodynamic shape gave them a bit more breathing room from the fighters. Finn whooped as he scored a hit on one of the fighters, but he was cut off by the jostling of another shot landing on their rear shields. He returned fire, and the second fighter lost its port solar array, sending it into a spiraling descent toward the green land below. The first fighter, now trailing sparks, peeled away and exited the atmosphere, no longer firing. Their quarry was going to ground instead of trying to run, so the pilot was content to let them land while he sent for reinforcements. Finn fired wildly, but none of the shots landed as the fighter dwindled to a speck and disappeared into space.

Rey returned to the cockpit, a grim look on her face. "Power couplings are polarized up and down the main drive lines. It's fixable, but it will take hours."

Poe was struggling with the controls. "I need to set her down. I've got a shimmy that's worsening. I don't know how much longer I can maintain control."

"There!" Rey indicated a clearing in the rapidly approaching distance. It was small, but it should do.

Poe wrestled with the controls as the canopy hurtled past beneath them. "We're coming in too fast, it's going to be a crash landing!"

The freighter's landing skids batted the upper branches of the trees at the edge of the clearing on its way to the ground and scraped across the clearing, leaving furrows in the dark soil before the nose of the craft plowed into the tree line. Poe saw the trunks of the trees rapidly growing in the viewport, then everything went black.


	2. Calm Before The Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes work to repair their damaged vessel and prepare to face their enemy.

Finn groaned and unbuckled the straps that held him in the gunner's seat. The landing had been rough, but the ship was level, no alarms were blaring, and he didn't smell any smoke. He stumbled out of the turret and headed for the cockpit.

"Rey, Poe, are you - Rey!" The woman was on the floor between the copilot's seat and the helm. Her trouser leg was torn to expose a scraped and bleeding knee, and Finn rushed toward her.

Rey waved him off. "Help Poe." The scavenger planted her right foot and pushed up with her arms to get off the floor and into the copilot's seat without further damaging her left knee.

Finn changed direction midstride and knelt by the pilot's seat. He unfastened the safety harness and pulled up his shirt to check for injuries. He found bruises blooming on Poe's tan skin echoing the straps.

"Rey, what's your status? How bad is your knee?" the ex-trooper asked as he carefully probed the pilot's ribs.

"Wrenched and bruised, but I don't think there's any lasting damage." Rey looked over the control panels and readouts. "The ship seems to be intact. We'll need to run pressure checks before we leave atmosphere, and the power couplings along the port drive line all polarized. Shield generators are good, sublight engines nominal, repulsors functional...oh, no."

Poe hissed as Finn's fingers found the darkest of his bruises and the injured ribs beneath. He focused on Rey's words instead of the pain. "Oh no? What no? What did we break?"

"The starboard stabilizer is reading as offline." Rey bit her lip in a worried manner. "That could mean anything from lines knocked loose to completely smashed."

"That sounds bad. Is that bad?" Finn asked.

"It is if we want stable flight, especially through atmosphere." Rey tried to stand, but her left leg would not support her weight and she toppled back into the seat.

Finn, satisfied that Poe wasn't in immediate danger, shifted to inspect Rey's knee. He tried to be gentle, but his medical training had been primarily geared toward triage and keeping his squad mates moving toward their objective if at all possible. If they couldn't continue, it was procedure to ensure they didn't fall into the hands of the enemy by any means necessary.

Finn pushed away the thought and stood. "Yeah, it seems like your knee is wrenched. And Poe, I think you have a couple of cracked ribs, but none of them are dislocated as far as I can tell. You'll be mobile once you're taped up, but I can't promise anything else." He paused in the threshold of the cockpit. "Stay put. I'll be right back with the medkit."

\-----

An hour later, Poe's ribs were wrapped, Rey's knee was bandaged, and the _Gin Winnie_ had been moved out of the tree line and landed more neatly in the center of the clearing.

Finn had helped Rey limp out of the ship and lifted her onto the wing to give her the best possible position to dismount the stabilizer without putting weight on her leg. Poe was handing her tools while Finn spread a camouflaging net over the ship to hide it from the sensors of the First Order ships that would be coming to look for them.

"Yep. It's damaged." Rey pulled herself and the disconnected stabilizer out of the open hatch. "I think I can fix it, depending on our supply of spare parts." She dropped the component into Poe's waiting hands and eased herself down.

Finn settled the last fold of the canopy. "How soon can we get flying again?"

Rey considered. "If my leg were good and Poe could move, we could probably be airborne in three hours. Slowed down by our injuries, probably six."

Finn stared at the problematic component in Poe's hands and frowned. "Then we'd better get started."

Rey and Poe exchanged glances. "Finn, as much as we would appreciate your help..." Rey started.

"I know I'd just get in the way if I tried to do mechanical work. That's your job. I'll be setting up defenses." Finn looked up at the sky through the thickening cloud cover. "The First Order will be here soon."

\-----

Poe glared at the jumble of fragile pieces that were supposed to be the starboard stabilizer. He was competent enough with pull-and-plug repairs, but this was not his speciality. The delicate wire he was soldering fried through and snapped off in his hand, and Poe suppressed an oath and resisted the urge to rub his face with his dirty hands. He heaved a sigh instead, and immediately regretted doing so as his ribs creaked and ground.

Finn emerged from the hold wearing a set of camouflaged fatigues and carrying an armload of weapons. The small ship didn't have an armory, but a cache of battle gear hidden in a smuggling compartment was standard operating procedure for all covert Resistance ships like this one.

"Hey, buddy," Poe greeted him.

Finn smiled at him half-heartedly. "Hey, Poe."

Finn was not good at hiding his emotions. It was one of the things that Poe found so charming about him - it was rare the pilot meet a worse liar than himself. It was even more charming that Finn did not seem to know how transparent he was. Poe could read every thought that crossed his face. Now, as he inspected each of the weapons, Finn's face was curiously blank.

Poe didn't like it. "Hey, you okay Finn?"

Finn looked up from the weapons, and Poe glimpsed an unfamiliar hardness in his eyes and the set of his mouth that disappeared when he focused on the pilot. "Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I'm okay. How are you doing?"

That had been one too many yeahs, but Poe let it go. "I'm fine as long as I don't twist. Or bend. Or breathe."

Finn nodded at the stabilizer that Poe had been fighting with. "How's that coming?"

"Slowly. Rey would do a lot better job than I can, but it's easier for her to slither around in conduits with a bum knee than me with cracked ribs." Poe glared at the part as if it personally offended him. "Though at this rate, she might finish changing power couplings before I can get this thing rebuilt."

Finn gathered the weapons back up. "Wish I could help, but I'm just a trooper."

Poe frowned at that. "You're not just a trooper. Not anymore."

Finn smiled weakly at him and laid a rifle on the table near the stabilizer. "Keep that close."

"Thanks." He looked at the weapons Finn still carried, a standard issue blaster rifle and a long-barreled slug rifle. "Is one of those for Rey?"

Finn shook his head. "She has a blaster pistol, but she's better with her lightsaber. Let me know when we're ready to go." He ducked out of the lounge. Poe could hear his footsteps going down the ramp and off the ship.

\-----

The forest had been silent when Finn had covered the light freighter with the camouflaged, scanner-shielded canopy shortly after the crash. Now, as he descended the ramp, he could hear the whistles and hoots of the local fauna reasserting themselves after disruption of the crashing spaceship.

Animal noises were good. Stormtrooper survival training taught that as long as the small animals were making sounds, there were likely no threats in the woods.

Finn scouted into the trees, but the underbrush was too thick for him to scout far from the ship without blazing a trail even an officer could follow. He found a big tree a few meters back from the tree line and climbed it to get a good look over the clearing. He could easily see the outline of the freighter under the canopy, and he realized the underbrush was easier to see through from above. The trees were thick enough that he wouldn't have much warning, but it was the best vantage point within view of the freighter. Finn hadn't tested well enough to qualify for sniper training, but he was a competent shot as long as the target was within a couple hundred meters, and his visual range was less than that thanks to the thick forest.

The trooper hung the blaster rifle from a broken branch nearby, wrapped himself in a blanket made of the same camouflage material that draped over the ship, and settled in the crook of a thick limb, cradling the slug rifle. Minutes later, landing shuttle engines screamed through the atmosphere and faded into the distance, leaving the forest silent again.

\-----

Rey crawled out of the conduits, trying not to put weight on the knee that throbbed gently through the painkiller patch Finn had applied to her leg. She was covered in the grime and grit that accumulates on the mechanisms of transportation and irritated from the repetitive task of replacing power couplings.

She limped into the common area and saw Poe still laboring over the stabilizer. "You haven't finished with that?"

Poe looked up at her. Smudges decorated his face and his wavy hair stuck up from his fingers going through it. He started to slump in defeat, and quickly pulled himself straight when his ribs protested. "Fine component repair is a job I usually leave for the techs. They yell at me if I try to do more than pull an old part off and put a new one on."

"'Galaxy's best pilot' should be enough for you." Rey replied. "Let someone else be galaxy's best mechanic."

"A pilot's no good if there's the ship can't fly. How are the power couplings?"

"Replaced, but it was a cascading failure. We're lucky the whole line didn't fry." Rey sat across from him at the table and propped her aching leg up on the neighboring chair. "That happens when there's an overload in either the initializer or the hyper/sub drive valve. I didn't pay any special attention it, but the initializer looked okay when I was pulling the stabilizer. Might as well check the valve first."

"Isn't that out on the central drive unit?"

"Yes, and it's not going to be easy for me to get up there."

Poe pushed the stabilizer across the table to her. "How about a deal - I'll check the valve if you finish that thing."

Rey peeked inside the component. "I think that sounds like a good idea. Where's Finn?"

"Out in the woods," Poe told her. "He said he was going to take a watch post so we have some warning if the First Order gets here before we're airborne. He has a comlink, but we're radio silent until we're repaired and ready to go."

Rey nodded, then looked at the ceiling with a startled expression as a pattering sound started. "What is that?"

Poe glanced upward. "Sounds like rain." He thought of Finn out there in the weather and frowned.

Rey pushed up from her chair and half-limped, half-skipped down the ramp and out of the ship. The pain in her knee was the only thing that kept her from running full-tilt out into the falling water.

The green of vegetation didn't shock her so much now that she'd seen a few more planets and realized why the arid heat of Jakku was not the preferred climate for most of her species, but she didn't think she'd ever get accustomed to water, even after the endless ocean of Ahch-to. Now, as drops fell from the sky, pattering against the canopy over her head, the desert girl held her hands out and felt the water on her skin. She stepped out into the warm rain, laughing as it rinsed the starship grime away. She stretched out her arms and looked up into the rain.

Poe had snatched up the blaster rifle and followed when the Jedi-in-training ran out of the ship. He had been prepared for anything from enemy fighters to threatening wildlife after seeing Rey take off like that. He stopped at the bottom of the ramp, stunned.

She was laughing in the rain, looking like she wanted to dance as the water soaked into her hair and clothes. He couldn't look away. Then her eyes landed on him, and she grinned at him, and Poe's heart felt like it wanted to burst. He bit his lip and grinned back. "You've never seen rain before?"

"Rain wasn't something that happened on Jakku." She closed her eyes and turned her face to the sky. "I heard traders talk about it, but I never imagined...."

Rey relaxed and opened herself to the Force, letting input from the living forest flood through her. She could feel raindrops hitting leaves and branches and soaking into the rich soil. Small furred creatures took shelter in burrows and cleaned the water from their fur. Flyers fluffed their feathers and shook themselves dry or bathed in the gathering puddles.

Rey felt Finn's attention on her. She reached for him, found him settled in a big tree overlooking the clearing. He was sheltered on the lee side of the tree trunk, the camouflage wrap helping to keep him somewhat dry and comfortable. She felt his happiness at seeing her enjoying the rain and vigilance as he scanned the wood.

Closer, she felt Poe. The older man hadn't taken his attention from her. She marveled at the openness of his mind, how loudly he broadcast his feelings. On the surface, he wondered as she experienced her first rainstorm. Beneath that swirled a confusing blend of reverence, admiration and...a longing...

Poe jumped guiltily when Rey's eyes snapped open and focused on him. "Um..." He looked around nervously. "Uh..." He always had something to say. Why couldn't he think of anything to say? "I... I'm going to check that valve." He fled up the ramp, away from her gaze.

Rey stood in the rain and watched him go, her mind swirling with the things she had felt.


	3. The Way Out Is Through

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn slips back into a stormtrooper state of mind to protect his friends while Rey and Poe repair the ship.

Guard duty is universally awful. No matter what is being guarded, or where, or when, it is a job that is, at best, monotonous. At its worst, it can be deadly. Between those extremes were paranoia, tedium, and unpleasant adrenaline jolts.

And then it started to rain.

 _Perfect_ , Finn thought as the first drops splashed off his wrap. This was just what this sideways mission needed.

Then he saw movement at the ship - Rey limping out into the rain. Her laughter floated up to him as Poe followed her out. Finn couldn't catch what they said to each other, but a smile spread across his face at the happiness in their voices. A moment later, something brushed up against his awareness - almost like Rey was sitting next to him. Finn had felt it before when she was meditating and reached out to him with the Force, and he grinned before her presence receded. Poe's voice reached him once again before he disappeared back into the ship, and Rey followed him a few minutes later.

And Finn still sat in the tree, but he was smiling now. Also, the wrap was waterproof, so he was staying drier than he had anticipated. He was still being surprised by how much better the Resistance treated its soldiers than the First Order.

Time dragged on. The rain slowed and eventually stopped. The clouds began to clear and the indigenous wildlife went about their lives.

And still Finn sat in the tree.

The he heard it. Echoing through the trees, the distant thrum of speeder engines. Finn tightened his grip on the slug rifle, twisting to look for the source of the sound, but it faded into the distance again before getting close. Before long, he heard them again, closer, louder, and coming from the east, but receding before he could get eyes on them.

 _Grid search_ , Finn realized. _They'll be at the closest point again in another_ \- he checked his chronometer - _twenty minutes. If they don't find us that pass, it will probably be the next one_.

Finn forced himself to breathe deeply and think. _Wait for them to come in easy range. Jam communications and pick off rear trooper, then shoot front trooper. Aim to kill. Speed is essential._ Another deep breath. Finn shifted to have a better view to the east and checked the slug rifle one more time.

Unlike the more popular blaster rifle, which shot beams of intensified light to burn through targets, the slug rifle fired a projectile that punched through armor and caused sharp force trauma to the enemy, leaving injuries that bled freely. The ammunition was not as convenient as blaster power packs, but it was more difficult to see where the projectile came from, and this model had a suppressed barrel to mute the sound of firing. It was a primitive concept compared to a blaster, unacceptable for the service of the First Order, but it was stealthy, good for an ambush attack - an excellent piece for guerrilla operations.

Finn kept his breathing deep and even as the sound of the speeders rose again. He flipped the switch on the jammer just before two troopers on speeder bikes came into sight.

Butt of the rifle against his shoulder, looking down the sights, leading the rear trooper with his aim, finger on the trigger, breathe out, squeeze, move with the recoil, shift aim, breathe out, squeeze.

Finn's breathing stayed steady and even through the encounter, his heart rate barely elevating.

It was over in a fraction of a minute. Finn's shots were devastatingly accurate. The rear trooper fell, his speeder bike coasting to a stop after a short distance. The front trooper curled around a wound in his side, causing his speeder bike to swerve and crash broadside into a giant tree. The bike exploded, and the forest was quiet again.

Finn slung the slug rifle across his back, retrieved his blaster, and climbed down from the tree. It only took a few minutes for him to reach the site of the crashed speeder bike.

There wasn't much left of it, just blackened and twisted metal. The rider was a crumpled heap a few meters from the epicenter of the blast. His armor had been melted in some places and blackened in others, his proportions distorted by broken and dislocated limbs. His helmet was strangely intact, and seemed to stare up at Finn until he turned away.

The second speeder bike had come to a halt after it's rider had fallen, releasing the deadman switch and cutting the thrusters. The stormtrooper was leaning against a tree trunk. He feebly grasped a wound in his neck that bled heavily despite his efforts. He jerked when he saw Finn approaching, and grabbed for his sidearm. "Traitor!" he rasped, feebly lifting the pistol.

Finn shot him, mechanically and without hesitation. The trooper slumped and didn't move again.

Finn stared at the fallen trooper, his once gleaming white armor now stained red and blackened, then shook himself. _Finish the mission, trooper._ He swallowed the bile in his throat and headed back to the intact speeder bike.

\-----

Rey's back ached from hunching over the stabilizer; her fingers cramped from manipulation of the fine electromechanical insides of the piece. Finally, she fastened the final hatch and leaned back, taking a moment to bask in the satisfaction of a job completed before she allowed herself to consider her more nebulous, and now more immediate, problem.

Rey wanted to get the stabilizer installed as soon as possible, but she hesitated to ask Poe for help. The pilot had disappeared into the main drive after the incident in the rain, where she couldn't follow with her knee. She had no idea how to deal with the waves of emotion that she could feel from him even without paying special attention.

She was heading down the ramp, considering whether her telekinesis might be sufficient to lift herself into position to reinstall the stabilizer, when she heard the explosion. She hurried down the ramp and spun around, looking for the source, before she closed her eyes and reached out with the Force. She felt Poe's sudden tension, then Finn's grim satisfaction. Beyond that she could only sense the local critters taking cover after the alien sound; no threats entered her sphere of awareness.

Just as the adrenaline began to fade, she heard the sound of a speeder engine. Lightsaber in hand, she turned to face whatever was coming, but she recognized the rider before she ignited the blade.

Finn stopped the speeder bike under the shelter of the canopy. Rey hobbled over to him as he swung off the bike, but stopped short when she saw the stoniness of his face.

"Two speeder scouts eliminated," Finn said mechanically. "Depending on the timing of their last report, we have up to 17 minutes before the enemy converges on the scouts' last location and recentralizes their search from there."

Rey's brow furrowed. "Finn, are you okay?"

Finn stared at her a moment, his jaw tightening briefly. "I'm functioning."

"Finn -"

"What's left to be done before we can get off the ground?"

Rey frowned, but there wasn't time. "The stabilizer is ready to reinstall, and Poe is working on the hyper/sub drive valve. We should be ready to take off as soon as that's done."

Finn nodded. "Good. Let's get it finished. We need to get going."

\-----

A muffled boom reached Poe in the highest part of the engine room. He jumped and dropped his hydrospanner, snatching the comlink from his belt and listening hard for anything from Finn, cursing the necessity of radio silence. He forced himself to breathe and counted to a hundred, then, with every ounce of military discipline that had been drilled into him, told himself that if Finn hadn't sent a scramble signal, it must be under control, and the best thing he could do was finish the job so they could get off this planet. He clipped the comlink back to his belt, picked up the hydrospanner, and went back to work on the valve.

Finally, the last bolt was fixed in place, and Poe climbed down the narrow passage from the valve. He was coming out of the engine room when he saw Finn coming up the ramp. "Hey, buddy, everything okay?"

Finn's posture straightened a hair. "There were two speeder scouts. They were eliminated before they could call in our location, but we have another -" Finn glanced at his chronometer "- fourteen minutes maximum before the enemy will realize they're missing."

Poe blanched. "Where's Rey? Is she -"

"Remounting the stabilizer. I was getting her started on that before coming to tell you. Is the valve -"

"It's replaced. Go help Rey. Once she's done, we're out of here." Poe headed for the cockpit, powered up the flight computer and began running preflight checks.

Poe was finishing the nav checks when Rey slid into the co-pilot's seat. "Finn's in the turret. Let's get off the ground."

Poe punched up the repulsors and guided the little freighter up just past the canopy, then punched the throttle. The landing gear skimmed the tree tops before it fully retracted and for a wild moment, Poe thought they might get away clean.

Then lasers splashed against the rear shields.


	4. Stand Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which our heroes fight their way off the planet and there is much kissing.

Rey adjusted the angle on the deflector shields and checked the sensors. "Four TIEs on us, with another wing coming in from the north."

Poe's mouth was a grim line as he pulled the yoke back and aimed the freighter's bow into the open sky. "So much for sneaking away. Let's punch a hole in the atmosphere."

Finn's target screen lit up as the _Gin Winnie_ lifted above the trees. TIE Interceptors swarmed across the sky from the east, spraying lasers. Finn returned fire, sweeping his aim back and forth instead of focusing on a single target, forcing them to scatter so they couldn't concentrate their fire. The Interceptors gradually gained on the _Winnie_ as Poe wove and juked.

The top-left fighter was closest, so Finn focused his fire on it. The pilot dropped back as one of Finn's shots glanced off his forward viewport, and Finn swung his aim to his wingman. The Interceptor juked back and forth as it spat green light at the fleeing freighter until Finn managed to clip the its port solar array, sending it into a spiral descent. The pilot managed to pull out of it, but he fell back, unable to match the _Gin Winnie_ 's speed with the top third of his solar array missing.

The first fighter, now flying in a triangular formation with the remaining pair, gained on the _Winnie_. Their weapons had been set to cycle more slowly and hit harder, and their shots began to land more often as their streams of fire wove together.

Finn sprayed the formation with blasts from the cannon to force them apart, managing to land a few glancing shots and slowing their pursuit, but failing to deal any real damage. He twiddled the dial to make the cannon fire more slowly but pack more of a punch, then resumed firing.

The greater power paid off almost immediately. A shot pierced the cockpit of one of the fighters, surgically killing the pilot but leaving the craft otherwise intact as it aimlessly peeled off from the other two in a gentle arc back toward the planet.

The remaining pair of enemy fighters hung in the _Winnie_ 's jetwash as they escaped the atmosphere. The fighters danced around each other, pouring light into the freighter's aft shields and avoiding Finn's fire, until the receding planet and the star field around it dissolved into the mottled light of hyperspace.

\-----

The first jump was very short. Rey dropped them out of hyperspace only one system away and ran diagnostics on their repairs while Poe plotted a more sophisticated course back to the Resistance base. A few minutes later, now sure that their repairs were holding, the _Gin Winnie_ reentered hyperspace and Poe allowed himself to relax.

"Nice shooting, Finn." Poe looked over his shoulder, expecting Finn to have come forward by then, but finding himself alone with Rey in the cockpit. Her eyes met his, full of concern.

Poe winced as he unstrapped himself, his bruised and cracked ribs aching as the adrenaline of combat faded. He pushed out of the chair and ducked out of the cockpit toward the turret, with Rey close behind him.

Finn was still strapped into the gunner's seat, his hands frozen to the grips. His breathing was ragged and his face was covered with sweat.

"Finn?" Poe called up to him from the common area. "Finn, are you okay?"

Finn's grip on the gun eased, his breathing deepened and slowed. A moment later, he released the grips and unstrapped himself.

Poe smiled as his friend descended the ladder, but his relief vanished when he saw the expression on Finn's face - or, more accurately, the lack of expression. The former stormtrooper's face was empty and cold.

"Finn?" Poe tentatively reached for his friend.

Finn stared at Poe's hand on his shoulder, then looked at Poe and Rey like he was surprised they were there. His eyes filled with tears, and he wrapped an arm around each of them and pulled them into a hug. He heaved a sobbing breath and kissed Rey's forehead, then Poe's cheek, and held them both tightly.

Poe wrapped his arm around Finn's back and held on to him. His other arm went around Rey, and he felt her arms wrap around himself and Finn.

"It's okay, buddy," Poe murmured, rubbing the younger man's back. "It's okay. You're okay, we're all okay."

Finn tensed anew and tried to pull away from Poe. "I'm sorry, Poe, your ribs..."

Poe laughed and held on to the soldier. "I don't care about my ribs, Finn." He leaned his forehead against Finn's, held tight to Rey, and a smile came to his lips. This may be the only excuse he'd get to hold both of these people like this, and he was going to enjoy it no matter how much it hurt.

The pressure of Finn's forehead disappeared, and Poe opened his eyes just in time to glimpse Finn's face tilting and coming closer before full lips pressed against his own and Finn was kissing him. He was a terrible kisser, completely without technique, not seeming to understand the mechanics of where their noses were supposed to go, but Poe didn't care. It was one of the most amazing kisses he'd ever received, and he kissed Finn back for all he was worth.

Then Rey's arms tightened around the two men, reminding Poe of her presence. He broke the kiss and stumbled back out of their embrace until his backside hit the table.

Poe couldn't look away as Finn and Rey turned their full attentions on each other. Finn kissed Rey with as much enthusiasm and as little skill as he had demonstrated with Poe. She responded with a bit more grace, but they broke apart quickly and both of them turned their attention to Poe, making his heart hammer.

"Poe?" Finn's smile turned to concern. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Um..." _What do I say?_ Poe thought. "Uh..." _Why does this keep happening to me?_ "I..." He looked back and forth between Rey's puzzlement and Finn's concern. "What...?"

Understanding dawned on Rey's face and she reached for him. "It's okay, Poe." Her hand went to the back of his neck and pulled him down into another kiss.

Rey was a better kisser than Finn, though not by much. Even so, Poe had to grasp the edge of the table to keep his knees from buckling. Finn stepped in and wrapped his arms around both of them, and when Rey's lips left Poe's they were replaced by Finn's. His kiss was brief, but Poe felt the conflicting attractions that had been plaguing him for weeks suddenly mix together and instead of diluting each other, gel into something that was stronger and more than either could have ever been alone.

Finn kissed Rey again, then two pairs of dark eyes fixed on Poe. A sloppy, delighted grin spread across the pilot's face, and he laughed and hugged Rey and Finn back.

The three of them held on to each other for a long time, laughing and trading kisses as the stress of the last several hours faded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Space combat is really fun to write!
> 
> Feedback is always appreciated.


	5. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fluffy domesticity and trio love

Rey adjusted the vector of the _Gin Winnie_ and pulled the lever to engage the hyperdrive. The route they were taking back to D'Qar was slightly longer than their outbound journey had been. Madara was already lightyears behind them, and it would be another seventeen hours before they arrived. The next course correction wouldn't be for fourteen hours, so Rey headed out of the cockpit.

Rey felt infinitely better now that she had washed off the engine grime and changed out of her dirty clothes. For someone who grew up a scavenger on a desert planet, she had quickly become accustomed to being clean. With the last of the grit gone from her hair and the grease scrubbed from under her nails, only the faint throb of her sprained knee detracting from her contentment as she made her way to the lounge.

"If you keep eating those, there won't be any for the meal!"

Finn had volunteered to help Poe prepare a meal while Rey did the piloting, but from the tone of Poe's good-natured scolding and Finn's laughter, it sounded like he was being more of a distraction than an assistant.

Rey sat at the table and listened to their friendly bickering. The happy domesticity was comforting, filling her with a sense of well-being.

Rey didn't remember her family. She knew that she had one when she was very young, but she didn't remember them. After being left on Jakku, Unkar Plutt had kept her from starving until she learned enough to earn her rations, but he hadn't taken much interest in her beyond that. Then, a man in a stolen jacket grabbed her hand and made her start running and didn't let her stop until Jakku was in her jetwash. She'd found people that were kind to her, cared about her, since then. It felt good not to be alone anymore.

"That's it!" Poe pushed Finn out of the galley. "Out, or you don't get any!"

"But I'm hungry!" Finn, laughing, tried to duck around him.

Poe gestured threateningly with a spatula. "No! You can wait!" His eyes landed on Rey, grinning at their exchange, and he pointed the utensil at her. "If you want any food, keep him out of my hair for the next few minutes."

Rey just grinned at Poe.

\-----

Poe gave the sauce a last stir and poured it over noodles in three bowls. Whistling, he scooped stir-fried nerf on top and sidestepped into the common area.

Rey and Finn sat together on the bench seat at the table in the lounge. Rey's injured leg was propped up, and Finn's arm was around her shoulders. They both smiled at him as he set the bowls on the table.

A week ago - hours ago - the sight of them cozy and happy together would have given him a pang of jealousy and longing. Now, Poe was unable to believe his luck. _Both of them._ They both wanted him. Even better, they were willing to _share_ him. He looked back and forth between them as they ate, unable to contain his grin.

Rey had terrible table manners. She hunkered over the bowl, shoveling noodles and meat into her mouth. She always ate like she hadn't seen food in days, and wasn't sure when she'd see it again.

Finn ate slowly and took small bites. Poe didn't expect him to finish the entire serving. After a lifetime of bland, boring food designed to meet the exact nutritional requirements of a stormtrooper and nothing more, Finn was easily overwhelmed by stronger flavors. He could have become a picky eater because of it, but instead he seemed to crave new experiences and would try almost anything.

"What are you smiling about, Poe?" Finn asked between bites.

"Just remembering when the mess hall served fenti bean chili," Poe replied.

Rey paused her voracious eating and looked between the men. "What's so special about fenti bean chili?"

Finn's dark skin flushed darker. "It was one of my first meals out of the infirmary - one of my first meals that hadn't had all the flavor engineered out of it. I wasn't expecting the spiciness."

"He...overreacted a little bit." Poe grinned broadly. "He felt the burn of the spices and..."

"I thought there was a chemical agent in the food!" Finn groaned, covering his face with his hands.

Poe tried not to laugh. "He fell off his chair like he was having a seizure, then got up and took off for the infirmary. By the time I caught up with him, he was telling the nurse that something in his food had burned his mouth, they needed to run tests, he'd been poisoned!"

Rey giggled and gave Finn a one-armed hug. "Who knew stormtroopers were so sheltered?"

Finn gave her an embarrassed smile. "Poe cooked for me the next day."

Poe nodded as he scooped noodles into his mouth.

A strange smile came to Finn's face. "You cooked for me every day for two weeks."

Poe froze, noodles momentarily dangling from his mouth before he slurped them up, chewing and hastily swallowing. "Well, I...um...well, the kitchen staff heard about the incident and took it personally." He picked at his noodles nervously, his cheeks burning. The head cook had been a little offended, but Poe had smoothed things over when he went to the kitchen to beg ingredients for that first meal. He had kept cooking for him because he had loved watching Finn experience flavors for the first time and answering his questions about different foods and their origins and the methods of preparing them.

"Thank you, Poe."

Poe smiled back at Finn. "It was my pleasure."

Rey couldn't help her wicked grin. "He kept you from being poisoned for two weeks."

"Oh, shut up," Finn said, rolling his eyes.

"He probably saved your life."

"I'm never going to hear the end of this, am I?"

"Maybe if you convince Poe to cook for both of us regularly."

Poe grinned at Rey. "Any time."

\-----

There were few places on a ship the size of the Gin Winnie where three people could be close. The most comfortable one turned out to be the bed in one of the minuscule staterooms. They ended up with Finn settled into the corner and Rey leaning against him, her back to his broad chest. Poe was lying alongside Rey's legs, his head resting on Finn's thigh.

Finn's fingers were in Poe's thick, curly hair. His other arm wrapped around Rey's slender waist. He leaned his head against the bulkhead and closed his eyes as they teared and a deep breath shuddered in his chest.

"Finn? Are you okay?"

Finn opened his eyes and looked down to see Poe's handsome face looking up from his lap. The pilot's chiseled jaw was rough with stubble, his brown eyes concerned.

Finn gave him a shaky smile and stroked his hair. "I'm just glad we all made it off the planet okay."

Poe smiled and pulled Finn's hand from his hair, lacing their fingers together. "Me, too."

Rey craned her neck to kiss Finn's cheek. "So am I." She nestled back against him and smiled down at Poe.

FN-2187 had only been touched by medical techs and fellow troopers, through gloves or while wearing armor. He'd never felt another person's skin against his own before he had grabbed Rey's hand on Jakku. The First Order had spent his entire life trying to make him believe that service was the only truth, the only thing that mattered. Nothing should distract a stormtrooper from their duty.

Finn squeezed Poe's hand, leaned his head against Rey's, and sighed happily. With an arm around Rey's waist and his fingers entwined with Poe's, he had found peace and happiness that he had never imagined possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For some reason I just kept writing and all this fluffy sweet stuff came out. I guess I just wasn't quite done with these three, yet. Sorry for the cavities.


End file.
